As I was led back to the theatre's specialised treasure vault I was worried that they might not have the item I required, but all my doubts were laid to rest as soon as clapped eyes on the vast collection of fiendishness in the back room. The management are ovbiously well acquainted with the products of the restraint artist that I had in mind. Now, as soon as the 15 minute gong sounds I step on stage holding one of Martin's finest creations: a double shrew's fiddle. (see fig.1) I advance towards Felina and Louisa, see their eyes fix on the formidable piece of aluminium engineering..

I remove the two thick steel pins each end of the device swings open. I exchange a few words with the Hostess and we set to work. The collar at one end of the double-fiddle goes around the neck of kneeling Louisa, her wrists are fitted into the cuffs nearly half way down it's length. Stage hands adjust the height of the suspended escape artist, so that her neck is level with Louisa's, then Felina's neck and wrists are pinioned in the rigid metal grip of the device. She tries to resist, but I can tell that she is much weaker than when I was last on stage and after the briefest of struggles I can refit the pins that hold the fiddle closed. I push both pins up from bottom to top, then slide padlocks through the holes through their centre, and click them shut. I slide the keys to each lock into their holes, leave them there. They are held in place only by friction. Too much struggling and they could fall and be even more impossibly out of reach than they are now.

Felina's neck is now double collared in heavy metal, her head can hardly move. The fiddle is below the ring attached to the pole though, so it's weight is supported and she is in no danger of suffocation. She can look down the device first to the top of the pin, then her own hands, then Louisa's forearms, then the other pin, then finally the collar around Louisa's neck. I take the key that Felina was about to use to unlock the pole's collar and place it on the fiddle, at the half way point, between the two sets of cuffs, from where it could easily fall off if too much struggling takes place. Felina and Louisa have obviously realised this and for the moment are just keeping still as they examine their latest predicament.

Back I go to my seat, wondering what on earth Felina will be able to do to free herself and her companion...